English dance-pop group EMF announced the death of their co-founder and keyboardist Derry Brownson on Friday morning (Aug. 14). “Late last night we started to hear the news that we have lost our Brother In Arms Derran Brownson,” the group said in an Instagram post of their 55-year-old bandmate, who formed the group with singer James Atkin, DJ Milf, drummer Marc Decloedt and guitarist Zac Foley in Cinderford, Gloucestershire, England in 1989.
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“We are devastated, the only solace we can find is that we are eternally grateful Derry was able to join us on stage a couple times just a few short months back,” the group continued; at press time Billboard had not independently confirmed Brownson’s death or the keyboardist’s cause of death. “Nothing will ever be the same again without our band mate and friend, fly high brother Derry. 💔”
According to BBC Gloucestershire, Brownson had been diagnosed with a brain tumor and had been undergoing treatment.
Brownson, born in 1971, rose to prominence in the early 1990s U.K. dance scene on the back of EMF’s inescapable, classic debut single, the pugnacious, Andrew “Dice” Clay-sampling party anthem “Unbelievable,” which hit No. 3 on the U.K. singles chart and No. 1 for one week on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1991. The song, with its thrumming bass line and singer Atkin’s cool, deadpan delivery, appeared on the act’s 1991 debut album, Schubert Dip. It became their calling card (and only significant U.S. hit) and one of the most iconic singles of the era’s rave-inspired “Madchester” electronic U.K. dance music scene.
EMF followed up their debut with the Unexplained EP in 1992 and their less successful 1992 Stigma album. Following the release of a third LP, Cha Cha Cha, in 1995, the band went on hiatus, with Brownson briefly joining the alt-rock group LK before EMF came back together in 2001 for a London reunion gig and greatest hits album featuring the New Order-inspired meaning of their name, Epsom Mad Funkers: The Best of EMF.
EMF split again in 2022 following the drugs-related death of guitarist Foley. They reformed once more in 2007 for some shows in a short-lived reunion that sputtered out two years later. Following yet another reunion in 2012, they released their first new album in 27 years, Go Go Sapiens album in 2022, followed by The Beauty and the Chaos in 2024.
According to NME, the new of Brownson’s death comes after the band recently revealed that they were about to finish work on a new 14-song album.
Watch the “Unbelievable” video below.
